25.3 hours played
Written 14 days ago
I really wanted to like this game since the development team had crossovers with Re:Logic. I can't in good conscience recommend this game. I'll probably play another 10-15 hours or so to wrap up a couple of remaining bosses, but I don't see myself doing the seasonal events or future updates.
Pros:
The music
Beautiful biomes
The slimes serving multiple purposes (A useful enemy!)
Cons: [b] 1.) The chest storage system is atrocious much of the early game. [/b] There are far too many junk items (i.e., spawn tiles, useless armor sets, etc.) that can be picked up randomly. I often found myself having to discard completely random tiles that got destroyed while mining or by enemies.
[b]2.) Most of the armor and weapons you find after the first couple of bosses quickly become obsolete.[/b] Your best bet is just to use the anvil to craft new weapons with every new ore tier (ore/crafting tiers are another problem). Useful sets like the mining set, fishing set, and radiation protection suit are more trouble than they're worth to get.
[b]3.) Time Waster for the Sake of Extending the Game - [/b] As you progress through the game it is extremely noticeable that the devs did certain things to stretch out play time. For example, pickaxes of the most recent ore tier become sluggish when entering the next progressive biome. This slows you down drastically when trying to get enough of the next ore. They need to fix the mining speeds, since the speeds make odd jumps between tiers. Another thing they do to slow down progression is the increasing material requirements to craft workbenches, armor, and weapons/tools. They make you create a new workbench and anvil FOR EVERY SINGLE ORE TIER. It's ridiculous when considering that there are only 3 smelters that let you smelt 3 unique ores each. There really should have only been 3-4 tiers of workbenches and anvils instead of 9ish. You start off creating a workbench for 6 wood. The final tier, solarite, needs 40 solarite bars, 30 galaxite bars, and 70 gleamwood. An exponential increase in cost. Don't even get me started on the armors. Thank God for ore boulders.
[b]4.) Summoning Bosses is not Intuitive and Finding Summoning Materials Sucks - [/b] Glurch, Ghorm, and the Hive Mother are relatively easy bosses to find since they either make loud noises, move around, or are in biome specific locations. Malugaz is where things start getting confusing. Enemies in Malugaz's biome, The Forgotten Ruins, drop crystal skulls shards. That's not the problem. The problem is how the player was supposed to know how they were supposed to right click when they obtained three of them. The tool tip on the crystal skull shards was "An ancient crystal shard that is only the fraction of something bigger.". As far as I can tell, this mechanic isn't used again for any other bosses. Future bosses have a crafting station where you can make a scanner and summoning item, which have their own material requirements. Those material requirements often include rare items, such as the Scarab Wingcover which has a 0.05% chance of spawning on a tile. You need 20 of them, so I hope you enjoy running around the Desert of Beginnings for 2+ hours.
[b] 5.) Some Enemies Just Plain Suck - [/b] Specifically the Larva. This is another enemy that seems to be aimed at extending play time. They'll tear down anything the player puts down (torches, rail tracks, etc), ergo the player needs to ensure they dig up all the larva spawning tiles. This is not fun. Most of the enemies in this game exist to annoy you, and not to prove as a challenge, an creative obstacle, or useful in terms of crafting.
[b] 6.) Permanent Health Upgrades - [/b] These are almost impossible to find. You sort of just stumble your way into them. You're most likely to run into the mushroom and amber larva upgrade. They're really easy to miss, so your best bet is to just buff with potions and craft better armor sets. There needs to be a better way to increase health for the average player.